Alternia
Alternia is a planet and setting from the Homestuck universe. The homeworld of the Troll race, and the (likely) capital of the Troll's interstellar empire, its surface is predominantly greyish-purple, and it possesses two natural satellites in the form of a green moon and a purple moon, the names of which are not known. Alternia's population is composed overwhelmingly of children, as Trolls are sent off-world as soon as they reach adulthood to serve, expand, and administer the wider Empire. Physical Characteristics Alternia is a rocky planet, with a size, mass, and nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere roughly similar to Earth's. 40-60% of Alternia's surface is covered in water. Most of Alternia's land appears to be concentrated into one, very large continent with a handful of large archipelagos making up the rest of the dry surface. Alternia, however, is a very extreme world in many ways. Almost all Trolls are nocturnal, doing their daily business by night before retiring to their homes by day. This is due mostly to the Trolls' vulnerability to the Alternian sun's rays, which burns them terribly upon even mild exposure. Whether this is a matter of Alternia's sun being exceptionally intense, or due to an exceptional vulnerability of the Trolls to sunlight, isn't known. Alternia has occasional downpours of acid rain which prove lethal to human beings, able to dissolve them in minutes. However, Trolls and most other Alternian fauna are immune to its effects. Alternia has relatively little diversity in biomes, with fauna being mainly the same throughout the planet. Most flora comes in the form of plants and trees roughly analogous to Terran flora, whereas most fauna takes the form either of insects large and small, and very large, imposing predatory creatures from all orders and kingdoms. Society Alternia, as previously mentioned, is inhabited almost entirely by children between the ages of 0-18. Troll society-- including the children-- are divided into castes based on the colour of their blood, an institution known as the Haemospectrum. While on Alternia, the children who survive their initial trials as newborns are given an animal caretaker known as a Lusus and servitor robots with which to construct a Hive, or, house. The essential services on Alternia are automated; drones and automatic systems see to the basic needs of the inhabitants and ensure the infrastructure of the cities and outlying areas remains in acceptable condition. Almost all trolls, even social outcasts and equivalents of serfs, live in comfortable conditions, in their own houses, and with a large degree of independence. This implies that the Alternian economy is to a degree post-scarcity. It is the job of the Troll children, therefore, to learn. As they grow, Trolls learn-- through a standardized curriculum administered by an automated program as well as through personal experiences-- their status in the Caste system, their place in society, the details of their future career, and what it means to be a good Troll. Relatively few survive the process. Between the totalitarian and often cruel leadership of the aristocracy, the harsh and unforgiving militancy of Troll culture, and the inborn capacity for violence among Trolls themselves, many Troll children are killed-- often by each other or at the hands of government war-droids-- well before they reach maturity. Notable Locations TBA Notes *While this article has been written using exclusively canon sources, some details have been filled in by DrodoEmpire by making limited extrapolations from the canon sources where such details, while suggested, implied, or must logically be so, are not explicitly spelled out. Category:Worlds and Places Category:Evil Hideout Category:Hell Councils